Dick Welford had played directly into the hands of his enemy. When Socola called at the Barton home to pay his respects to Miss Jennie and wish them health and happiness and success in their new and dangerous enterprise, he found the girl in a receptive mood. The accusation1 of interest had stimulated2 her to her first effort to entertain the self-poised and gentlemanly foreigner.
He turned to Jennie with a winning appeal in his modulated3 voice:
"Will you do me a very great favor, Miss Barton?"
"If I can—certainly," was the quick answer.
"I wish to meet your distinguished4 father. He is a great Southern leader. I have been commissioned by the Sardinian Ministry5 to cultivate the acquaintance of the leaders of the Confederacy. I am to make a report direct to the Court of King Emmanuel on the prospects6 of the South."
Jennie rose with a smile.
"With pleasure. I'll call father at once."
Barton was delighted at the announcement.
"Invite him to spend a week with us at Fairview," Jennie suggested.
"Good idea—we'll show him what Southern hospitality means!"
Burton grasped Socola's outstretched hand with enthusiasm.
"Permit me," he began in his grand way, "to extend you a welcome to the South. Your King is interested in our movement. It's natural. Europe must reckon with us from the first. Cotton is the real King. We are going to build on this staple7 an industrial empire whose influence will dominate the world. The sooner the political rulers realize this the better."
Socola bowed.
"I quite agree with you, Senator Barton. His Majesty8 King Victor Emmanuel has great plans for the future. He is profoundly interested in your movement. He does not believe that the map of Italy has yet been fixed9. It will be quite easy to convince his brilliant, open mind that the boundaries of this country may be readjusted—"
"I shall be delighted to show you every courtesy within my power, sir," Barton responded. "You must go South with us to-morrow and spend a week at Fairview, our country estate. You must meet my grand old father and my mother and see the curse of slavery at its worst!"
Barton laughed heartily10 and slipped his arm persuasively11 about the graceful12 shoulders of his guest.
"I hadn't thought of being so honored, I assure you—"
He paused and looked at Jennie with a timid sort of appeal.
"Come with us—we'll be delighted to have you—"
"I'll enjoy it, I'm sure," he said hesitatingly. "We will reach Montgomery in time for the meeting of the Convention of Seceding13 States?"
"Certainly," Barton replied. "I'm already elected a delegate from my State. Her secession is but a question of days."
Socola's white, even teeth gleamed in a happy smile.
"I'll go with pleasure, Senator. You leave to-morrow?"
"The ten-twenty train for the South. You'll join our party, of course?"
"Of course."
With a graceful bow he hurried home to complete the final preparations for his departure. He walked with quick, strong step. And yet as he approached the door of the little house in the humbler quarter of the city his gait unconsciously slowed down.
He dreaded14 this last struggle with his mother. But it must come. He entered the modestly furnished sitting room and looked at her calm, sweet face with a sudden sinking. She would be absolutely alone in the world. And yet no harm could befall her. She was the friend of every human being who knew her. It was the agony of this parting he dreaded and the loneliness that would torture her in his absence.
He spoke15 with forced cheerfulness.
"Well, mater, it's all settled. I leave at ten-twenty to-morrow morning."
She rose and placed her hands on his shoulders. The tears blinded her.
"How little I thought when I taught your boyish lips to speak the musical tongue of Italy I was preparing this bitter hour for my soul! I begged your father to resign his consulship16 at Genoa and brought you home to teach you the great lesson—to love your country and reverence17 your country's God. And since your father's death the dream of my heart has been to see you a minister, teaching and uplifting the people into a higher and nobler life—"
"That is my aim, mater dear. I am consecrating18 body, mind and soul to the task now of saving the union, an inheritance priceless and glorious to millions yet unborn. I'm going to break the chains that bind19 slaves. I'm going to break the brutal20 and cruel power of the Southern Tyranny that has been strangling the nation for forty years!"
His eyes flashed with the fire of fanatical enthusiasm.
He slipped his arm about his mother's slender waist, drew her to the window and pointed21 to the unfinished dome22 of the white, majestic23 capitol.
"See, mater dear, the sun is bursting through the clouds now and lighting24 with splendor25 the marble columns. Last night when the speeches were done and the crowds gone I stood an hour and studied the flawless symmetry of those magnificent wings and over it all the great solemn dome with its myriad26 gleaming eyes far up in the sky—and I wondered if God meant nothing big or significant to humanity when he breathed the dream of that poem in marble into the souls of our people! I can't believe it, dear. I stood and prayed while I dreamed. I saw in the ragged27 scaffolding and the big ugly crane swinging from its place in the sky the symbol of our crude beginnings—our ragged past. And then the snow-white vision of the finished building, the most majestic monument ever reared on earth to Freedom and her cause—and I saw the glory of a new Democracy rising from the blood and agony of the past to be the hope and inspiration of the world!
"You hate this masquerade—this battle name I've chosen. Forget this, dear, and see the vision your God has given to me. You've prayed that I might be His minister. And so I am—and so I shall be when danger calls; you dislike this repulsive28 mission on which I'm entering. Just now it's the one and only thing a brave man can do for his country. Forget that I'm a spy and remember that I'm fitted for a divine service. I speak two languages beside my own. Our people don't study languages. Few men of my culture and endowment will do this dangerous and disagreeable work. I rise on wings at the thought of it!"
The mother's spirit caught at last the divine spark from the soul of the young enthusiast29. Her eyes were wide and shining without tears when she slipped both arms about his neck and spoke with deep tenderness.
"You have fully30 counted the cost, my son?"
"Yes."
"The lying, the cheating, the false pretenses31, the assumed name, the trusting hearts you must betray, the men you must kill alone, sometimes to save your own life and serve your country's?"
"It's war, mater dear. I hate its cruelty and its wrongs. I'll do my best in these early days to make it impossible. But if it comes, I'll play the game with my life in my hands, and if I had a hundred lives I'd give them all to my country—my only regret is that I have but one—"
"How strange the ways of God!" the mother broke in. "He planted this love in your soul. He taught it to me and I to you and now it ends in darkness and blood and death—"
"But out of it, dear, must come the greater plan. You believe in God—you must believe this, or else the Devil rules the universe, and there is no God."
The mother drew the young lips down and kissed them tenderly.
"God's will be done, my Boy—it's the bitterness of death to me—but I say it!"
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
accusation
|
|
| n.控告，指责，谴责 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
stimulated
|
|
| a.刺激的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
modulated
|
|
| 已调整[制]的，被调的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
distinguished
|
|
| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
ministry
|
|
| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
prospects
|
|
| n.希望，前途(恒为复数) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
staple
|
|
| n.主要产物，常用品，主要要素，原料，订书钉，钩环；adj.主要的，重要的；vt.分类 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
majesty
|
|
| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
fixed
|
|
| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
heartily
|
|
| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
persuasively
|
|
| adv.口才好地；令人信服地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
graceful
|
|
| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
seceding
|
|
| v.脱离，退出( secede的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
14
dreaded
|
|
| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
spoke
|
|
| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
consulship
|
|
| 领事的职位或任期 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
17
reverence
|
|
| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
consecrating
|
|
| v.把…奉为神圣，给…祝圣( consecrate的现在分词 )；奉献 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
bind
|
|
| vt.捆，包扎；装订；约束；使凝固；vi.变硬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
brutal
|
|
| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
pointed
|
|
| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
dome
|
|
| n.圆屋顶，拱顶 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
majestic
|
|
| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
lighting
|
|
| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
splendor
|
|
| n.光彩；壮丽，华丽；显赫，辉煌 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
myriad
|
|
| adj.无数的；n.无数，极大数量 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
ragged
|
|
| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
repulsive
|
|
| adj.排斥的，使人反感的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
enthusiast
|
|
| n.热心人，热衷者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
fully
|
|
| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
pretenses
|
|
| n.借口（pretense的复数形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |